DON HOSHO technique #1

pub. on giu 20, 2008

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	How to make a second llife photo realistic photo that people can't tell if it is even taken from second life or if it is a real photo? I made this to enter the koinup orange contest :D What made me want to share in this contest is the fact I can write a tutorial and provide some help to the community. 1. You first need an inspiration; browse the internet and find some photo that You want to get it. I have found this photos in deviantart.com and I will tell You what I need from each:
	The dark man, mad by bodysoul@deviantart: I like the guy, I want to make someone dark skinned like him. I like the lighting, and it can guide me in my art piece. Rooster by ~blackhearted@deviantart: blackhearted.deviantar... The guy is a RL international awarded 3d artist and was one of photos that inspired me in past .. and I wished one day to make something like that.. It is a 3d .. Yes, that black and white art piece at the right is a 3d ... and I will make something with close quality only by secondlife and some processing on photoshop.
	2. Get your resources I like CMFF afro skins, they just look real. Some people says CMFF doesn't provide good skins, I tell them CMFF is to me the best skin artist, but he is in world for maybe 5 years, and the skins he made were the best at old times. To me only he made 4 skins that I really like. And those would be his African skins .. they are made at 2007 as I guess, and they are his latest skins; just buy the demo to know who really is Chip midnight. No need to buy the skin now, it is too early to decide, just buy the demo.. and btw, u can make the photo only with a demo skin.
	3. Now the skin doesn't look any African .. it must be the shape.. we will have to build the shape now and get as close to the photo of the dark man (bodysoul's photo). Head should be big, but not too big as well. It should be large enough to appear in the photo as the head is really painted well and realistic. and in same time it should not look that big so the body appears muscular without adding much work to it.
	I make it more African now.. I still use the photo as a resource, but his nose is not really African, so I use a brief guide that describes the differences of races. http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-2-33220929 http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-1-32046017 This is a very good resource for You guys.
	The nose is very important, and btw I made the eyes. At that time I was a host at Josie Anderton's studio .. she was working in another photo, and we were speaking and exchanging experiences.
	Nose is very important, his nose acutally is down, and doesn't look African enough.. So I went to an African nose as how the book says hehe. At this time Josie told me she had to log, and she said I am free to use her studio, pose stand, everything... This lady is really a kind lady to me.
	Josie: Good bye ahmad, see You later. Me: Good bey, have a nice day. Cheeks will be different than the original photo too, I go after the guide here.. Made the eyes close, and the mouth.. that really has taken some time.. The chain too and the relation between the jaw and the neck.. Don't forget the shape of the whole head too.. it is round like the guide said..
	The body ? No problem about making a body any way.. don't make it very tall.. and make sure it is not very muscular too.. hands should be small a bit.. ..
	I went to Josie's pose stand.. but too bad she forgot to make something to let me use it I guess.. or may be it is just me.. and I was too busy to figure out how this photo studio is working hehe.. so I went to my personal photo studio at papercut sim! Lynni was talking to me at that time, so I decided to tp her if she likes to watch ... and she didn't mind really. Lynni is a RL american actress by the way. Can't tell her more hehe.. Any way as You see, I wanted a dark background!
	4.And first thing is to try to get a lot of figures first.. I want to test the figure and compare it with the photo.. So at this stage I tried several poses that has hands away from the head.. [14:08] Ahmad Hosho: look at me, the problems of this sl avatar that we need to avoide are 3 [14:09] Ahmad Hosho: 1. the arm: the part of arm which is directly above the hand is fat in second life [14:09] Ahmad Hosho: look at the photo, it is normally going thinner [14:09] Ahmad Hosho: 2.the muscles, and for muscles i may take the photo with 2 diferent skins, 1 has more lighting on the muscles [14:10] Ahmad Hosho: as this avatar has no enough muscles. [14:10] Ahmad Hosho: 3. the shoulder muscle is not defined in sl. [14:10] Lynni Aeon: oh yes....actually it's the shape that does that [14:10] Lynni Aeon: true...everthing seems to flatten here [14:10] Ahmad Hosho: i need a pose that arms and head are not touching, and the arm are close to the dark area of background. [14:11] Ahmad Hosho: i can use a dark part of the arm to hide the bad parts
	Chiaroscuro? huh? This lighting system has been driven by several artists at Renaissance period It is inspired by the candle lighting, if You light a candle in a dark room, it will just look like there is a 1 single light source in the middle of a black place. read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Leonardo da vinci used this lighting system to make their paintings more realistic, and to create a dramatic effect. In second life: 1 single source of light, set on transparent, and black background are going to get the basic, simplest form of this lighting system.. Your light may be orange/yellowish a bit so u get close to the light color of the candle.
	5.This pose was the closest to the dark man photo.. Question: We see here a full body, and a portrait.. Will I make my photo as a full body like the dark man photo? or a portrait art? What about I look at a body photo, and a portrait photo and decide what I want.. I will not give a final word now, I will just look, and come the other day with my decision.
	By a close up on the photo, You can get some nice shape.. take it to Your photoshop/gimp .. I use ps 7.0 here. I let my mind think about it, I will just get rid of the Demo word by using the stamp tool.. to let you know You don't have to buy the original skin only for 1 photo, You can always get ride of the Demo word inside a photo. Nothing wrong about that. I bought a demo skin for 1L, and I used it to have 1 photo shot .. fair enough, no? End of chapter 1 Please wait chapter 2

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I made a tutorial to teach my secrets and tips to make a photo realstic sl photo by the second life client, and a photo processing software like photoshop/gimp .. I call this " Hosho technique "

Credits
bodynsoul.deviantart.com, blackhearted.deviantart.com, cedarseed.deviantart.com, CMFF, Josie*~*Anderton's

Comments

thanks for sharing! I'm putting it online, to make visible for other members, too! great job!

pier | 12 year(s) ago

postscriptum, how did you find the story board as a means for tutorials.....?

pier | 12 year(s) ago

Great stuff..just goes to show..sometimes what looks simple...is usually the result of hard work.

conniesec | 12 year(s) ago

Cannot wait to see the next chapter ....great work

Eves_Rodenberger | 12 year(s) ago

thank you very much, very interresting

bobby | 12 year(s) ago

@Pier: Glad u like it man, The storyboard system is very good but I have some problem with it yes: The typeface You are using for the stream is not readable enough. Also the leading is important too. :)

donhosho | 12 year(s) ago

@conniesec: thank u glad u like it
@eves: my pleasure mademoiselle Rodenberger. It is in progress.
@Bobby: Glad u like it bobby :)

donhosho | 12 year(s) ago

Donhosho - you continue to inspire me. Thank you so much - I've learned a couple more things from you again!

MSnook | 12 year(s) ago

Thank u MSnook, glad to be any reason of help. And it all in the end of the day comes from Your kindness Young lady. :)

donhosho | 12 year(s) ago

I sit at your feet to learn :) Thank you so much for your time and talent to teach us!

ShelbyZ | 12 year(s) ago

This is awesome.... and i love those skins!

Venk | 12 year(s) ago

Thanks for sharing this!

raulcrimson | 12 year(s) ago

@Shelbyz: i am just a guy that tries. and thank u loads for ur beatiful comment, very encouraging :D

@Venk: thank u very much .. i love them too!

@Rauclrimson: You are welcome my friend :D

donhosho | 12 year(s) ago

Amazing work. I do wonder though, and I face this in my own work, at what point does a piece become less of an image of Second Life and more of a 3D-assisted illustration of real life? I often find myself not going the extra mile toward realism just because that would make a piece look too little like SL. I wonder what you think about this?

Kee | 12 year(s) ago

Thank You Kee for Your Comment.
The question in my mind is: Do we move from real life to virtual worlds? or are we moving virtual worlds to real life?

I personally move in the negative direction, I take Second life as an art medium that I can use to create real art from it. May be the 3d softwares has more advanced tools than second life, but secondlife 3d art should find it's way to real life, with all these efforts which we see in koinup and flickr we should find the way for secondlife to breath in RL gallaries.. not to present a human experince with virtual world, but to be a real media that can convince real art. And for these reasons I say there are going to be some old way to deal with it, true artist can use any medium to create art.. the point is this medium is a bit hard.

donhosho | 12 year(s) ago

Amazing tutorial ^^ Thank you for sharing it.

Nikalu | 12 year(s) ago